Former U.S. lawyer sentenced to life for murders of wife, son

WASHINGTON, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Former U.S. lawyer Alex Murdaugh was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences on Friday for the murders of his wife and son.

The sentencing came less than a day after a South Carolina jury found the disbarred attorney guilty of slaying Maggie and Paul Murdaugh.

Jurors found Murdaugh, 54, guilty of using a shotgun to kill his son Paul, 22, and using a rifle to kill his wife, Maggie, 52, at the family's home on the night of June 7, 2021.

"This has been perhaps one of the most troubling cases," Judge Clifton Newman said before announcing the sentence at a hearing in Walterboro, South Carolina.

"That was especially heartbreaking for me to see you go in the media from being a grieving father who lost a wife and a son to being the person indicted and convicted of killing them," Newman added.

Murdaugh, once an influential personal injury attorney in South Carolina, claimed that he was "innocent."

Murdaugh came from a family of lawyers, several of which served as prosecutors in the state.